Last chapters: Dumbledore reading the signs wrong. Snape gave Harry a potion but tricked him believing he was a student. Harry has learned some of Tom Riddle's background. Stanley bates is finding more clues.
-= Harry Potter, 25 May 1992, Late in the evening =-
It was late at night and curfew had past almost an hour. Even some teachers had gone to bed. On a night like this, Harry, and the twins were 'up to no good'.
The newspapers didn't have enough information what kind of Horcruxes Tom made. In the last month they have listed books that Tom Riddle borrowed. You just had to check the first page with the list of students that had borrowed it.
They made some interesting discoveries. The man clearly had an interest in snakes.
However, all books they checked till now, were a bit mundane. They wanted to know whether some books, in the restricted section, were borrowed by Tom Riddle as well. That would show his true interests.
As none of them had completed their OWL's they were not allowed in without a permission slip from one of the teachers. As they didn't think they would get the said permission slip, they had to do it in different ways. The plan would be to sneak into the restricted section of the library and find out what books were borrowed by mister Riddle. Even knowing only the titles would help them finding out what kind of interest the boy had. This in return could help them finding the horcruxes.
That was why they would be going to the library after curfew. While the stars shone through the windows, the three of them sneaked to the library.
Finally they arrived at the door.
"Alohomora" Fred whispered, or was it George. The door flung open.
Harry followed the twins inside the library. There were loads of bookcases but they walked directly towards the restricted section.
One of the twins blocked Harry and told him "Harry, find a dark corner and watch the map for names."
"I can help."
"Someone needs to look at the map and we know a little bit more about magical traps than you. So it makes sense that we would look through the books."
Harry didn't like it but he had to agree with the twins opinion. He found a partially hidden place between some bookcases, took a chair and looked at the maps the twins gave him.
He didn't need to activate the map. It already showed most rooms in Hogwarts. All public hallways were on the map. All classrooms and all corridors. The toilets and the broom closets.
But that was not the most amazing thing of the map. It showed where all people that were in hogwarts.
With a castle that large, it couldn't fit on a piece of parchment. The makers had solved this problem by only showing a section at the same time.
You could call for the index and choose the section you wanted from a list of items by pointing your wand at it. Many of them had cryptic names like 'Below the Willow' or 'Padfoot give us some privacy.' but most of them were quite clear.
Of some locations, he had no idea why they were mapped. Who needed a map of 'the sky above Hogwarts.'
It was very ingeniously made although when testing Harry did seem to find some limitations.
The first limitation he found when looking at the Slytherin common room. It wasn't there. Near the entrance was a marking with "? Slytherin House ?" Which was only a couple of meters off.
Most likely because the makers of this map didn't belong in the house and therefore they didn't find the information to map it. He didn't know the other common rooms but heard from the twins that it was near the painting of the fat lady. Indeed, when he looked there, the common room was visible. The only dorm it showed was the seventh years boys dorm with one bed empty.
Did that show the marauders were Gryffindor males? Most probably, but when you hear enough Slytherin plots you will start doubting anything.
He quickly took a look at their corridor. It showed that still nobody was nearby. He could look at other places again. He looked, a bit bored, over the list of locations.
To fill his time, he began to look at the cryptic names.
The map named 'Below the willow' was not interesting at all. It just showed one path with nobody in it. Disappointed he looked at the other cryptic name.
While wondering who or what Padfoot was and what he was not allowed to look at, his curiosity won. He activated the name and, harry saw the astronomy tower. Three circles showed three floors. At the third floor, there were two students. Probably prefects on patrol, Harry thought. Nobody else is out at this time.
He didn't recognize the names but he was quite certain that it was a male and a female. This confirmed his suspicion that they were prefects as they always patrolled in pairs.
Why did they just walk in a brooms closet? Harry asked himself. The door was most definitely closed.
A text appeared near the two students in pink.
Looking at the text he saw it was a description of what the two students were doing.
"Kissing"
The twins didn't tell him that the map had such a feature. This was most definitely not two prefect on patrol. Maybe they were prefects but they were definitely not patrolling. Then he saw that the pink text changed into.
"Snogging."
What is the difference? Harry thought to himself. It is both kissing.
The descriptions turned more and more dirty in the next couple of minutes. Judging from the text changes, it was certainly getting more intimate up there. He was disgusted by some of the activities described. He chose to give them some privacy and switched back to the corridor in front of the library.
To his shock, there was a dot moving nearby. He looked at the small letters and deciphered the name. 'Minerva McGonagall' would be closing in. Harry quickly entered the forbidden section and nudged Fred and George to go while saying the words "mischief managed". It wouldn't do to let the transfiguration professor know about the magical map.
They went with the three of them under the cloak and walked out of the library. While invisible it was difficult for them to walk really fast. You had to be careful not to step on each others toes and that greatly slowed the students down.
A brown cat appeared at the other side of the corner. He knew he had seen that cat before but couldn't remember where he had seen the cat. It was certainly not Nr Norris.
The cat turned her head and looked straight at them, sniffing the air from their general direction.
Great, Harry thought, cats have a very good smell and the cloak only blocks sight.
The cat walked towards them and with the slow movement the three of them were making, the cat was certainly faster. It walked close to them and then sat down. It started licking it's fur. When they had moved a couple of meters away from the cat again, the stupid beast walked closer again.
The cat seemed to enjoy herself. Not that the three boys shared this enjoyment. They became rather frustrated.
After a few corridors, the cat did something new that it surprised the three of them. In a fraction of a second multiple things seemed to happen simultaneously that they didn't register everything.
The cat jumped towards them. The claw of the cat pulled the cloak. The pull was stronger than usual. Harry lost footage and stumbled over.
In front of him were some woman legs. When looking up, he saw professor McGonagall standing with his cloak in her hand.
"Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley I am disappointed in you three. Surely by now you know the opening hours of the library so tell me what kind of mischief you three were doing."
"We are sorry." The Weasley twins said in union.
"I am not sure whether I believe that." The transfiguration professor said.
The Weasley twins were getting in problems because of him. He had to do something.
"It is my fault." Harry said. "I have asked the twins to help me with …" Damn he should have planned this better.
"And what kind of mystery should that be?" The professor asked obviously doubting what he just said.
"… researching the sorting hat." Harry said. "We were researching why the hat shouted Slytherin when it was held on my head."
Strictly speaking, it was even true what he said. Still, the professor didn't seem to believe him.
"And you are doing that in the middle of the night?"
"Yes."
"Empty your pockets." The professor told the three students. Harry was very glad that he disabled the map as it was now only a blank piece of parchment.
The twins took a piece of parchment out of their pockets as well. Unfortunately this had text written on them. She read it all aloud.
Books
'Efficient usage of living sacrifices in rituals' By Erica Goyle.
'A theoretical guide to servitude contracts' By Scorpius Black.
"That is a rather dark list of books" The professor concluded dryly. "Did you search the library for the darkest books? Did you write these so you can steal them after our discussion?"
Not being able to find an answer, the three of them were simply quiet.
"You will each lose 50 points and serve detention next Saturday evening at Hagrid."
Harry's courage sank to his fee. His house would shun him again, this time for the loss in points. With this loss, everyone would blame him if they would lose from Ravenclaw.
Just when Harry had the idea she couldn't make it worse, she told him "I will confiscate this cloak."
"Please give it back." Harry begged "It is a family heirloom from my father."
"You should have thought about that before you start sneaking around Hogwarts." The transfiguration professor told him. After a dramatic pause, she continued "However, I will only keep it till the summer vacation."
She turned to the twins again. "I will contact the headmaster and your parents and tell them about this incident. I am really disappointed in you three. Your interest in the dark arts is not healthy."
-= Fred and George Weasley, 26 May 1992, Early in the morning =-
It was breakfast time and therefore the four house tables were full of students. Despite being a bit tired, Fred and George were sitting on the Gryffindor Table. Sneaking through the castle at night was a bit tiresome.
They were completely woken up when they saw their parents enter the castle accompanied by their head of house. What were they doing here? Did their head of house contacted them.
The few looks at them while three adults were in a conversation seemed to indicate that they were indeed here for them.
Fred was trying to hide his nerves while George gave some prank items to Lee Jordan. It wouldn't do to let them be caught by their parents as well.
After what seemed to be a too short conversation, the three walked over to them.
Knowing Molly, they expected a Howler but this was far worse. They probably had to defend their actions against their mum. Although they honestly didn't do anything wrong, they had to keep the secret of the Horcrux.
Harry would be in too much problems, if the world knew. Although Harry's reputation may protect him, that Riddle guy seemed to be very dark. If harry kept him alive, the experts may require him to do unsafe actions to remove that thing. It was better to research the thing and hire the specialist themselves.
Unfortunately, they didn't really have another excuse why they had made that list of books.
When their mother walked closer, the saw them and bellowed in a voice that only Molly could do. "FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! How dare you read those books? We are absolutely disgusted!"
They figuratively sank through the floor when hearing that.
The other students looked at their direction. All hope of a quiet breakfast was gone.
Luckily Professor McGonagall interrupted their mum and asked. "Mr and Mrs Weasley, We are interrupting a lot of students breakfast. Do you mind continuing this discussion on my office?"
The other Gryffindors visibly relaxed when hearing that. Fred and George, though, were not relaxed at all.
A couple of minutes later they were in the transfiguration professor's office. It was a small office with some papers and a small portrait on the desk. There was one bookcase filled with paperwork. Folders were marked with markings like 'Transfiguration Exams 1983 Year 3' and 'Prefect Punishments 1987'.
"Professor McGonagall, can you tell us what happened?" Arthur said diplomatically.
"I caught your sons Fred and George visiting the restricted section of the library with Harry Potter, in the middle of the night."
"Fred, George, what were you doing in the library?"
"Well. Harry wanted to find out why the hat shouted Slytherin. We helped him research that and at one point we suggested sneaking in the library."
"And what did you research in the library?"
"Making a list of books, in the hope to find out more about, Tom Riddle, the wizard who made the hat sort Harry in Slytherin."
"So you don't trust the hats decision, despite the boys taste of dark books." Molly shouted.
Fred quickly answered "We don't think Harry is going dark for a couple of reasons."
"First of all, you told us never to trust anything that thinks for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. This means that we should not blindly trust on the hats opinion."
A small smile appeared at their father's face while their mother didn't really calm down.
"Second, we have reason to believe Harry has been misplaced by some … kind of … curse. We are currently looking at clues how the curse can be destroyed."
"Third, making the list of the books in the library was research on Tom Riddle."
"And who may that be?"
"His full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. We don't know a lot about him but what we do know isn't very good. Based on the spells we know he cast, he is some kind of mad dark wizard who killed multiple people."
"So, you three were getting information about a dark wizard who was probably a crazy Death Eater."
"Yes and no. We were getting information on a dark wizard, but it seems unlikely that he would have joined you-know-who."
"So you think that two third year students and a first year student could stop a dark wizard?" their father asked in a serious tone.
"Now you say it like that it sounds stupid …"
"… but that is what we were trying."
"I am glad you two aren't turning dark as the professor told me, but I find both of you very irresponsible." his father told them. "Fighting dark wizards could get you killed. Because of this I retract the Hogsmeade permission slip."
Oh shit. How would they get the dung-bombs now the twins thought at the same time.
The man directed his attention to their head of house. "Professor, can you verify the story of the twins?"
"Well, I can check whether the books were indeed borrowed by Tom Riddle."
"Thanks in advance."
-= Stanley Bates, 28 May 1992, morning =-
The last few months, the Granger, Dursley case had been nagging him. The facts didn't add up but clearly something was going on. Incidents were closed without good reason. If there was a reason, it was not documented, like it should be documented.
Childcare authorities should have been informed when four people complained about the abuse of a child, whatever was found. Yet, it never happened. As far as he knew, the boy was not enrolled at any school. This was strange but not illegal as people had the option to home-school children. With the child-abuse and the fact that his cousin did attend school, it gave him creeps though.
Certain records were missing of the boy. How could there not be a dental record? Not a single visit to the hospital?
It should have gotten to light quite some time ago. There was only one explanation. Someone was keeping things quiet. This meant that there was probably someone inside the police working with these criminals. Loads of money could corrupt anyone. The movies always said that every man had his price, although he didn't believe he himself would take any bribe.
He could be wrong but he suspected his boss, Roland Akers, to take bribes in exchange for closing the case. He was high enough in the chain of command and he heard rumors that he had some secret notes that nobody else was allowed to read.
If there was one thing he hated was corruption. Bribes destroyed societies. Taking care of this corruption would be the right thing to do even though it would be difficult and that it could cost it his job.
He still had to do it the smart way. Running up and demanding to his boss to see the notes, would be counter-productive. He would be on the street within a day, so to speak.
That was why he, on this christian holiday that his boss didn't work, would search through Roland whole office for clues.
-= Stanley Bates, 28 May 1992, evening =-
He had been wrong about his boss.
He didn't find a single clue that bribes took place in the Granger and Dursley case. The notes were real. Roland appeared to have worked on a strange case, ten years ago. Somehow whole families have died of a heart attacks, or so the medical records would claim. His boss had written his findings and speculation in a carefully hidden notebook.
If that was the case, why were no researchers looking for a disease? There was certainly more going on.
The speculation of his boss went far and even had some references to Nazi Germany where medical records were manipulated to be called heart attacks. He was unsure what was going on and didn't really know if he really wanted to know it either.
He had copied the list of people who died of the mysterious circumstances after he saw two names, that stuck out.
James Potter and Lily Potter died of a heart attack on 3 November 1980. (1)
Their son Harry James Potter survived because he was adopted one day earlier. What the hell is going on?
That name was worth the whole day of researching and he really agreed with the statement 'what the hell is going on?'
-= Harry Potter, 30 May 1992, Late in the evening =-
Harry, Fred and George were escorted to Hagrid's hut by Professor McGonagall. It was around eight O'clock in the evening and sun had already set. The night sky agreed with their astronomy tables, that it would soon be new moon. The forest at their left was really, really dark. Even during the day, little light penetrated the roof of leaves.
It took too short before they arrived at a wooden hut. Near the door were a few crates with rats.
When the door opened, the large man walked outside and gave the three boys a gentle smile. Even with the dark light, Harry could see the sweat on his face.
Harry smiled back. He still remembered his first birthday cake and the wonders the man had shown him in Diagon Alley afterwards. He could not believe, in all conscious that this man would deliberately hurt a student.
The transfiguration professor greeted the man. "I have the students here. Take care of them."
"Good." the huge man said keeping his smile on the children.
The huge man, which in Harry's opinion was too kind to kill any student, turned his attention to him and the twins. "We will have some fun tonight. We are going in the forest finding out what is happening to the unicorns."
"You mean the forbidden forest?" Harry asked thinking about the dangers he heard from the forest. Combined with the articles he read about Myrtle Warren, he had the feeling the large man was underestimating the danger of the forest.
"Wicked" one of the twins said.
The professor interrupted the conversation, clearly not happy about Hagrid's plan. "You three, you are here for a punishment, not for pranking. You are to stick closely with Hagrid, follow his orders and not wander around unsupervised."
"I was planning to split up." the half-giant told her.
"Rubeus Hagrid" she shouted. "You shall not split up the students you are responsible for. There are creatures in the forest that are quite dangerous for those who are smaller than you. Understood?"
"But we will be faster if …" Hagrid started.
"NO." she shouted and added to the three boys "If Hagrid asks any of you three to split up, or to do anything that is dangerous, you are to ignore his orders and report to me afterwards. I will not allow him to put you in danger."
-= Harry Potter, A few hours later =-
The air was filled with ash. The heat was radiating around them. The orange light was making their shadows dance. They had to get away. It was dangerous here.
Between the smoky clouds they made their way. The uneven footing made it difficult to run, but at least they could try. They could almost not stand the heat. It was getting warmer by the minute, or did they imagine that? How long did they have to walk to find somewhere they would be safe? Were they going in the right directions? Anywhere from the fire was a right direction. Where were the others? He had lost Fred and George in all the chaos. Harry didn't know where they were. He could only hope they would find a safe path. Just like he could only hope that he would use a safe path.
He was not the only one that hoped that. The whole forest was awake and with the fire everyone tried to flee. Spiders, much larger that he knew from his cupboard, were crawling over the ground trying to get away from the heat. He heard horse like creatures running. Probably the centaurs.
He didn't know how many steps he took until he found some safety. In front he could not see trees so he ran into the open space.
Suddenly, his foot hit some cold liquid stuff. He looked down, half expecting to have stepped in a large pool of unicorn blood. Seeing it was transparent he slowly realized that it was a small lake.
After a quick decision, he stepped further in some water and intuitively he waded deeper. He realised, this was the lake that was in the forbidden forest. It was smaller than the black lake but large enough to keep them safe from the fire.
He hoped that the others would also find water. Then he realized, he could help them.
He took a deep breath that tasted like ash and shouted "FRED, GEORGE, HAGRID, HERE IS WATER."
From far he heard a loud voice "WHERE?". The voice could be from anyone, but was probably from Hagrid.
"HERE!" Harry shouted and started waving, in the hope someone would spot him. This happened and soon he was joined by a half-giant and one of the redheads.
"Thanks Harry, you may have saved my life" They said out of breath. "That is a hell of a fire."
After a short pause, george asked "Have you seen Fred?"
"I'm sorry but no." he told George. "Shall we shout for him?"
Together they shouted out "FRED. WHERE ARE YOU?"
Hagrid added "ARAGOG, WHERE ARE YOU?" to that statement. Harry briefly wondered who or what aragog was but he was more worried by the fact that Fred didn't reply. If he would have been close, he should have been able to hear them.
"We need to search for my brother." George insisted in a pleading and slightly panicked voice. He couldn't imagine what George was going through but it was likely horrible. Knowing that your brother was in danger but unable to do anything. He was looking for desperate methods, that may get him killed as well.
Harry was not against looking for Fred but charging into the forest would be madness.
"We need a plan." Harry answered "I don't think running blind in the forest is an option. Do you know any useful spells?"
"Thanks, good idea." Hagrid told Harry "There is the Sonoros spell but I don't have a wand."
"No problem" george said before waving his wand with the Sonoros spell. With his enhanced voice he shouted like he had never shouted before. "FRED? WHERE ARE YOU?"
Still no response was heard.
~Well, either the boy is too far away, or he is unable to answer.~ Harry thought hoping it was the first but fearing it was the second. ~We need a way to find him~
Hermione, who was currently awake at her bed, was thinking about it as well. Given the bond, she couldn't really sleep that well when Harry was awake and visa versa. With adrenaline pouring through Harry's body, like it was doing now, it was really impossible.
~Try tracking charms.~ she suggested.
"Could you use a tracking charm?" Harry asked the third-year student.
"No, it requires Fred's blood." he told Harry.
For a moment, the two bonded children thought about it they got the same inspiration at the same time.
"I have an idea but I am not sure if it will work." Harry said.
Author Notes:
Sorry to write a cliffhanger. Or in fact I am not sorry about it at all. Will Fred survive the blazing heat of the fire? What started the fire in the first place?
(1): The Potters are registered that they died at 3 November because the ministry of magic was in chaos and nobody thought of informing the muggle authorities in time. And no, that is not the only mistake the MoM made.
Unfortunately I found that I am writing slower than that I am posting chapters. That is why I am considering a different posting schedule. The next chapter will be posted in two weeks, but afterwards, I may do something different. Made a poll for that as well.